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Friday, May 22, 2009

And then it rained

Geraldton is blessed with glorious weather for most of the year. The summers are hot and dry and very windy which makes it the perfect spot for a windsurfing tragic like myself. Yeah, some of the locals complain about the wind, but the alternative is 40 degrees celcius or higher, and humidity to boot. A blistering easterly off the inland, complete with its swarms of flies is akin to sitting in a fan forced oven, not something one likes to experience too often over the summer!! For some bizarre reason this usually coincides with Boxing Day, a day that regularly scores 47 degrees of mercury.

Anyway, the great weather of Geraldton is in the Autumn through to Spring, when we have mild temperatures (low 20s) blue skies, awesome sunsets, and a smattering of rain. Just a few days of rain here and there, and another bizarre thing, usually at night.

It's usually about eight to nine months between the last rain in September and the first rain in May, so by now everyone is hanging out for a bit of water to green up the parched landscape and get busy in our winter gardens. Here we garden with a very upside down mentality: Summer is too hot and dry so gardens lie fallow over this time but come the first rains of Autumn and everyone is busy planting their veges and other plants. It's now time to put in the tomatoes and other summer crops, as well as a few winter crops as well. We don't get frost so it's kind of akin to an English summer!

They've been forecasting rain coming for over a week, and yesterday it at last came. Gale force winds hit town just before dawn and with it torrential rain. The sun peeks out from time to time, enough to keep it warm and entice me outside to see how many leaves I'll need to sweep up once the wind settles.

Hazel doesn't like the winds that accompany these fronts. Being the neurotic dog that she is she finds the swaying trees and all those positive ions far too disturbing by half. Her fear of banging doors also contributes to her anxiety levels. I believe you can get valium for dogs, perhaps prozac would be better...

When we get this sort of weather it's sometimes cold enough to consider lighting the fire, but today I think the sun is winning. I may even get a few hours out in the vege patch sowing seeds.

So here's to the first rain of the season, and may all the farmers get enough to get their seeding done, and may my water tanks fill to over flowing!

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Hazel

My best friend and constant companion for the last 15 and a half years. She's now sleeping on a bed of seaweed in a quiet spot in my garden. I'll miss my best friend and I'll never forget all those wonderful times together.